Search Catalog

Follow Us On:

DaXun Zhang

“If the bass is finally to produce a headliner, the instrument can have no better champion,” wrote The Washington Post of double bassist DAXUN ZHANG, who has indeed made his mark as a soloist on this unusual instrument. During the 2009-10 season, Mr. Zhang appears as soloist as part of the Suntory Hall 23rd Anniversary “Hibiki” Gala Concert in Tokyo and in recital in Seoul. In the U.S., he performs the Bottesini’s Concerto No. 2 and his arrangement of Hua Yan-Jun’s "Moon Reflected in the Erquan Pool" with Gerhardt Zimmerman and the Canton Symphony and in recital at Franklin and Marshall College (PA).

In April 2007, Mr. Zhang won an Avery Fisher Career Grant, only the second double bassist in the history of this prestigious award. In the summer of 2008 he returned to the Music@Menlo Festival in California and toured Korea with the chamber ensemble DITTO, including a concert at the Seoul Arts Center. Mr. Zhang performed the last three seasons as a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two. He also gave recitals at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts (CA), Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Loyola University New Orleans and the Vancouver Recital Society. He performed a unique duo recital with pipa player Yang Wei at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and was featured in recital at Boston’s Jordan Hall by the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts.

Mr. Zhang has performed extensively with the Silk Road Project, including concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, at Carnegie Hall, and in Japan and California. He recorded the soundtrack to a 10-part documentary series with the Silk Road Project and its Artistic Director, Yo-Yo Ma, which aired in Japan on NHK Television. The CD was released as “Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon” on Sony Classical. He has also joined with fellow Silk Road musician and pipa player Yang Wei and with pianist Tomoko Kashiwagi to form the innovative chamber ensemble Qi Lin.

As concerto soloist, Mr. Zhang has appeared with orchestras including the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Orange County’s Pacific Symphony, the Monroe Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle and the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra. He has given recitals at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, the University of Georgia, Missouri State University, and at the Chinese Embassy in the Embassy Series in Washington, DC. He has also performed chamber music at the La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, the Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati, the Strings in the Mountains Music Festival and the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival.

DaXun Zhang is the first double bass player to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and start a career under the auspices of Young Concert Artists. He made his New York debut sponsored by the Claire Tow Prize and his Washington, DC debut as a co-presentation with Washington Performing Arts Society. He also won the La Jolla Music Society Prize, the Orchestra New England Soloist Prize, and The Fergus Prize. In April 2006, Mr. Zhang performed his arrangement of Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy in at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall with Keith Lockhart conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

Mr. Zhang was also the first double bassist ever to win First Prize in the 2003 WAMSO (Women's Auxiliary of the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra) competition, leading to a performance with the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra with Osmo Vanska, conducting. In 2001, Mr. Zhang was the youngest artist ever to win the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition. He has also received the Grand Prize of the American String Teachers Association National Solo Competition.